A Magistrate Court in Shanzu has dismissed a bail application by cult leader Paul Mackenzie who facing charges including murder and suicide.
Senior Principal Magistrate Joe Omido on Thursday, August 10, ordered the State to detain Mackenzie and 28 other co-accused persons for a further 47 days, pending hearing and determination of corresponding applications.
Together with his co-accused, Mackenzie has spent more than 90 days in custody which he claimed to be unreasonably harsh.
The persecution welcomed the ruling, noting that investigators from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) will have enough time to review evidence and tie the loose ends of the case.
The twenty-nine suspects are facing 12 counts of criminal charges, including 12 charges including murder, counseling and aiding suicide, abduction, radicalisation, genocide, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud, and money laundering.
Mackenzie and his co-accused have been accused of killing or aiding the death of more than 425 people whose bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola Forest.
Mackenzie was born in Kenya in 1968 and later worked as a taxi driver before founding the Good News International Church in 2003.
The church quickly grew, and Mackenzie soon had thousands of followers. He preached a message of salvation through faith and obedience, and he often told his followers that they would be rewarded in heaven if they abandoned their earthly lives.
In 2017, Mackenzie began to preach that his followers should starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus. He told them that they would be resurrected in heaven if they died of starvation. Many of his followers believed him, and they began to starve themselves.
In April 2023, police in Kenya raided Mackenzie's homestead in Shakahola, where they found the bodies of over 400 people who had starved to death. Mackenzie was arrested and charged with murder.
However, he has denied the charges, but he is facing the possibility of life in prison, at least, according to Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Professor Kithure Kindiki who assured Kenyans that Mackenzie will never see the light of the day again.
"Mackenzie was able to convince his followers to do something as harmful as starving themselves to death simply by telling them that it was what God wanted them to do.
"It is important to be aware of the signs of a cult and to be wary of anyone who claims to have a direct line to God," Kindiki warned Kenyans.
